Ad Astra Observatory

I asked the original owner of the 13” mirror for some information so I could start working up a .. er.. “balance” sheet for the scope. I’m not doing cost analysis — I am trying to figure out how much the completed scope will weigh, and where its balance point will lie (which point needs to be over the mount).

Mdearingjaxfl@aol.com wrote:
Mirror is 1.7 or 1.75” thick, I think.
OK, cool. That gives me an idea of what kind of weight I’m looking at.

I tossed the original cell
From my understanding, calling the original object a “cell” is an insult to mirror cells everywhere. 😀

it has an university optics aluminum cell that works well.
Great. I have used uoptics cells before, so I’m familiar with the concept.

Don’t know the weight offhand. Will you put it in a tube or a truss?
It’s going into a truss. I’m going to see if I can build something lightweight enough to put on my G-11 mount for astrophotography. A 13.1” f/4.5 will make a great astrograph — if the mount can carry it, and modulo its figure. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll build a base for it and use it as a light bucket while my 8” scopes do the imaging.

I’ve been eyeing the Albert Highe style “minimalist” designs, but had been able to resist the lure of a big scope for awhile, and then you had to go and sell me a new project… mumble grumble… 🙂

In case you’re curious, I’m thinking about doing a design based around rings shaped like Reuleaux triangles (you have no idea how long it took me to identify the name of that shape 🙂 ), which will let me have a
nice circular hole in the middle, but still leave lots of support around the struts.

Too bad you don’t live close….you could grab the complete scope body and take it with you.
That’s OK. I would have liked to have the tube, but then what would you do with all that extra storage space? 🙂 That tube is nearly the size of my bedroom closet…